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Sunday, August 23, 2026

08/23 Links: True History of the Middle East with Simon Sebag Montefiore; Review: 'The Jewish Hospital' by Jonathan Hammel; The IDF's Transformation since October 7

From Ian:

A Place for Healing Amid the Holocaust
REVIEW: 'The Jewish Hospital' by Jonathan Hammel
Yad Vashem estimates nearly 200,000 books have been written about the Holocaust. We gain some fragments of insight from such works as André Schwarz-Bart's Last of the Just, Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, Nikolaus Wachsmann's comprehensive history, and even Mel Brooks's parodies.

To decide to write a new book about the Holocaust is a curious endeavor in the face of that vast body of literature and its nearly endless variety. But the true story of the Jewish Hospital of Berlin is so unlikely, even absurd, that it justifies yet another addition to that literary genre.

Jonathan Hammel's historical novel recounts how the Nazis allowed a hospital staffed by and serving only Jews to exist throughout the entire duration of the Third Reich. He does it through the story of his grandmother, Gerda Schild Haas, who worked as a nurse in the hospital.

The setting is March 1943, a full year after the Wannsee Conference where Reinhard Heydrich and 15 officials of the Reich agreed to the final solution of the Jewish question. Earlier plans for emigration of Jews to welcoming countries failed as there were no welcoming countries. Later emigration to neighboring countries only led to death as the Nazis swept through Eastern Europe and killed as many Jews as they found. But a more efficient and organized solution was in the offing.

The rationale for this hospital reveals the ludicrous and insane mindset of the Nazi bureaucracy. Apparently, they believed the 70,000 Jews of Berlin needed to be in good physical shape before they were transported to the labor camps like Sachsenhausen where they survived an average of about two weeks or to the death camp of Auschwitz where they lasted about two hours. Any pregnant women would deliver their babies there and then go on transports to their death.

Some of the characters in the book have been given pseudonyms, including the author's grandmother. Gerda Schild Haas is called Lena Schild, and her close friend Sophie Gollschmidt portrays Stella Goldschlag, a notorious Nazi collaborator forced to spy on her fellow Jews. Schild eventually is sent to Theresienstadt camp, the Potemkin village created by the Nazis to pretend that Jews were well treated whenever any investigation was performed. The actual head of the hospital, Dr. Walter Lustig, retains his name. Lustig was a physician who lost his license as part of the Nuremberg Laws but worked closely with the Nazis in his efforts to keep the hospital open, prevent the staff from being deported to the camps, and ensuring his own survival.

Several incidents that the staff of the hospital actually experienced are presented in this fictional account. Attempts at deporting 50 percent of the staff were avoided by playing off the bureaucratic wrangling between the Gestapo and the SS squads over jurisdiction of the hospital. Children were housed there, and some avoided deportation. Jews who worked in the hospital were recruited as Nazi spies to identify Jews who were living openly in Berlin under assumed names and identities. Adolf Eichmann and Alois Brunner appear in the novel and were involved in overseeing the hospital as part of their portfolio in organizing the destruction of European Jewry.
Tevi Troy: New York Isn't the Same for Jews
When I was growing up in Queens in the 1970s, about 2,000 Jews would worship on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur at my synagogue.

If there were police outside, they were there only to direct traffic, not to provide protection.

This year, every synagogue in New York has a security committee; police presence is a necessity - not because of traffic.

While Jews once felt safe walking the streets of the city - or at least only as threatened as everybody else - now they feel, with good reason, as if they have targets on their backs. In July, 70% of hate crimes in New York targeted Jews.

The pervasive threat is a constant topic of conversation. Why don't comparable non-Jewish institutions need the same layers of security?

What's happening in New York is about more than one mayor running an administration oddly focused on demonizing Israel.

The atmosphere is changing the character of what was once America's most Jewish city and making it simply another place.


Triggernometry: True History of the Middle East with Simon Sebag Montefiore
01:06 - The Ottoman Empire: Tolerance Myth, Collapse and the Three Pashas
20:30 - Atatürk, Sykes-Picot and the Birth of Modern Türkiye
37:49 - Mandates, Nationalism and the Imperial Carve-Up of the Middle East
54:06 - The Shah of Iran: Autocrat, Reformer and the Road to Revolution
01:11:20 - Khomeini’s Masterclass: How the Islamic Republic and Its Informal Empire Were Built
02:14:25 - What’s The One Thing We’re Not Talking About


Speaking out Photographer and activist takes stand against antisemitism in new book: ‘I don’t like bullies’
Alyssa Rosenheck has always been a fighter.

In seventh grade, a classmate at her Tulsa, Okla., middle school lost her wallet and, in front of the entire biology class, exclaimed “the Jew took it.”

She was pointing at Rosenheck.

“I get up and I knock her down,” the photographer and activist told The Post. “And I immediately got sent to the principal’s office.

“My dad — who’s this big New York Jew — storms in, looks at me, looks at the principal, and says, ‘Lissy, let’s go’.

“He said, ‘My daughter has the right to deck whomever offends her people and her family’, and so I learned to defend.”

Although she is quick to point out, this was her one and only physical fight.

Rosenheck, 44, has spent the years since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack which killed more than 1,200 Israelis defending her people — and fighting against anti-Zionism, arguing it’s become a byword for antisemitism.

“I don’t like bullies,” she said. “And I like justice. I like being able to exist in the world and not have repercussions solely for my immutable characteristics.”

She has written a book; part exploration of her own roots and personal faith and part treatise on why antisemitism has exploded in the US, called “White. Blonde. Jew.” released this week.

She put pen to paper after being targeted with antisemitic threats and traveling to the area of Israel next to the Gaza strip to interview Israeli combat heroes, hostages and families, including the siblings of Eden Yerushalmi, a 24-year-old Pilates instructor kidnapped and slain by Hamas.

“I look back and I think there are pros and cons to growing up in areas where there’s not large Jewish communities,” said Rosenheck. “You feel a little bit ‘othered’ immediately, but you also, which I think is a gift, learn how to use your voice.”

Rosenheck, who has grown a large social media presence, had to use her voice again when her book launch at an independent bookstore in her hometown of Nashville, planned for this past Thursday, was canceled.
Prominent NYC rabbi’s daughter accuses Mamdani of fueling antisemitism: ‘I’m sure many have buyer’s remorse’
The daughter of a prominent rabbi whose Manhattan synagogue was swarmed by vile anti-Israel and antisemitic protesters last fall accused Mayor Zohran Mamdani of fueling “Jewish hatred” in New York City.

Karen Schneier Dresbach — who is executive vice president of the multi-faith Appeal of Conscience Foundation as well as the daughter of Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue — said she believes some Jews who voted for Mamdani are having “buyer’s remorse.”

“When you have a mayor of the city of New York, who continues to spew rhetoric … this just fuels Jewish hatred in our city,” Schneier Dresbach said Sunday on 770 WABC’s the “Cats Roundtable” program.

Mamdani is a staunch critic of Israel.

He supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against the country, refuses to recognize it as a Jewish state and has urged New Yorkers to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Manhattan next month during the United Nations General Assembly, accusing him of being a war criminal.

She claimed Jews who voted for Mamdani have learned a harsh lesson.

“To Jews who voted socialist and for Mamdani,… sometimes you learn the hard way. What did they say in The Wizard of Oz? ‘Don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain.’ … I’m sure many [Jews] have buyer’s remorse – certainly with regard to their votes for Mayor Mamdani,” Schneier Dresbach said.

Schneier Dresbach said antisemitism has exploded after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

In an example close to home, her father Arthur Schneier’s historic Upper East Side synagogue was targeted by menacing anti-Israel protesters last year.

The Holocaust-surviving 96-year-old, who founded the organization where Schneier Dresbach is executive vice president, told The Post last November that the protest left him shaken.

“I don’t know how you expect a man to feel who saw his synagogue burn to the ground as a child and now has his synagogue attacked twice in the United States — and now to witness, almost on a daily basis, the egregious attacks, these heinous attacks on houses of worship, synagogues, [on Jews] … It’s insanity!” Schneier Dresbach said.


The IDF's Transformation since October 7
In the modern battlefield, there is a steadily narrowing gap between theoretical talk of a "digital military" and the ability to actually operate such a force under fire, amid chaos, against an adaptive enemy, and at a tempo where a decision delayed by a minute may already be irrelevant.

The fighting force that recovered from the October 7 surprise subsequently demonstrated extraordinary tactical and operational adaptability. After the initial shock, the IDF moved within a relatively short period from systemic surprise to a complex, joint, multidimensional offensive campaign, demonstrating the ability of a military organization to learn, change its methods, and rebuild operational effectiveness while fighting.

One of the defining characteristics of the campaign has been the development of information- and network-centric warfare. In the networked model, the sensor that detects, the system that analyzes, the commander who decides, and the element that fires all become part of a single network. Information is raw material that is rapidly converted into operational effect. The most important weapon on the modern battlefield is the system that knows faster what to shoot at, who should shoot, and when.

The ground challenge in Gaza has been exceptional even by international standards. The IDF has had to employ infantry, armor, combat engineers, intelligence, special forces, stand-off fire, and airpower within a dense urban environment, against an enemy that spent years constructing a system specifically designed to reduce the advantages of a conventional military.

In 2025, the U.S. Army's Center for Army Lessons Learned published a detailed study titled Subterranean Operations: Israeli Defense Force Lessons from Gaza. The study explicitly notes the need to examine and update U.S. doctrine based on the IDF's experience in Gaza.

For years, a concept developed in Israel that, in many cases, favored deterrence, containment, and risk management over a clear concept of decisive victory. Israel built a force with exceptional technological and operational capabilities, but its strategic concept for employing that force did not always evolve at the same pace. On October 7, the bill came due.
Defensible Borders after October 7: Why Israel Needs Buffer and Security Zones in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria
The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas invasion, massacre, and kidnapping illustrated the vulnerability of Israel's narrow borders and lack of strategic depth to prevent cross-border attacks and the commensurate increase in the importance of safe, secure, and defensible borders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that one of the central lessons of Oct. 7 was the need for "buffer zones inside enemy territory - not inside our territory."

In the wake of Hamas's surprise invasion, Israel has established minimal security protection zones in southern Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, ranging from three to 20 km. - to provide strategic depth sufficient to prevent another cross-border invasion and massacre by hostile forces.

President Trump and other U.S. officials have called for Israel to withdraw from these areas in line with negotiated agreements. Yet, the historical record suggests a crucial need for territorial buffer zones enabling Israel, one of the smallest countries in the Middle East, to protect itself.

Under its updated defensible borders doctrine, Israel conditions any withdrawal in southern Lebanon on the disarming of Hizbullah and the demilitarization of the territory. The same principle holds on the Gaza front. The original Trump 20-point plan, vetted and agreed upon by Israel and the U.S., requires Hamas to be fully disarmed and Gaza demilitarized before any further steps toward an Israeli pullback are even discussed.
How to Close the Leaks in Iran's Economic Siege
The chokehold on Iran is failing because leaks function as a pressure-release valve for the regime. The leaks in America's economic siege on Iran include the Turkish land corridor, the Iraqi backdoor, and the crypto shadow ledger.

Revenue from Turkish trade, Iraqi transshipment, and crypto liquidity does not merely offset the sanctions. It is disproportionately captured by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), allowing the regime's most powerful internal factions to insulate themselves from the scarcity that the rest of the Iranian economy experiences.

Turkey remains the single largest overland leak in the siege. It persists because individual U.S. sanctions designations have not been backed by consequences the Turkish financial and political establishment actually fears. The objective is to convert isolated enforcement actions into structural risk policed by Ankara's own banking sector.

To neutralize the Iraqi backdoor, the objective is to make Baghdad's continued access to U.S. security and economic support conditional on measurable interdiction of this specific corridor.

Indicators that the strategy is working will be signs that scarcity is reaching the regime's core. This memorandum lays out the specific U.S. agency-assigned work required to convert a rhetorical siege into an operational one.

When the leaking valves are actually closed, the pressure starts becoming something the regime's own factions have to fight each other over. That fight, not a foreign hand, is what ultimately changes what comes next in Tehran.
Editorial (The National-UAE): Iran Can't Expect to Threaten Its Neighbors and then Do Business with Them
Years of confrontation, belligerence and revolutionary rhetoric have deepened Iran's international isolation.

That isolation worsened last week, with the UAE - the Arab world's second-largest economy - suspending trade and financial transactions with Tehran.

This development is a direct consequence of Tehran's actions. For years, the Emirates maintained commercial links with Iran even during difficult periods characterized by political tensions.

Pragmatism, however, has its limits. Iran's leaders cannot expect to threaten their neighbors while maintaining the benefits of economic relations with them.
US envoy Barrack reverses Golan comments, reaffirms Trump's recognition of Israeli sovereignty
The US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria and Iraq, Tom Barrack appeared to reverse his previous comments on the status of the Golan Heights in recent days, backing the US recognition of the area as Israeli territory in a statement to the Associated Press on Sunday.

“United States policy on the Golan was set by President Trump in 2019 and is unchanged,” he said, contradicting his claim in an interview with Mario Nawfal on Friday where he stated that Israel occupies the Golan Heights.

“They still occupy the Golan against the UN resolutions, against all of the international order, which has said the Golan is Syria’s,” Barrack said then, despite the US having recognized the area as Israeli for almost a decade.

The interview took place against the backdrop of Israel's strike on the Abu al-Duhur military airfield in Idlib last week. Israel claimed that Turkish troops were ready to deploy at the base, a claim that Turkey denied.

Syrian negotiations primarily on Israeli withdrawal from areas besides Golan
Israel conquered the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War, annexing the area by law in 1981. UN Security Council resolution 497, passed only days later, rejected the annexation as "null and void."

In 2019, Trump recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli, as a part of pro-Israel moves including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moving the US embassy there.

Syria never rescinded its claim to the Golan Heights, and after Ahmed al-Sharaa took power in December of 2024, the question the area's status entered the spotlight once again.

During negotiations between Israel and Syrian officials in Jordan on Sunday, the Syrian delegation asked to separate negotiations over the Golan Heights, appearing to prioritize the matter of Israel's withdrawal from areas captured after December 2024.


Israeli election rivals Netanyahu and Eisenkot both reject Palestinian statehood
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot have both pledged to block the creation of a Palestinian state if they win the upcoming Knesset elections.

Their statements come ahead of the October vote, following comments by Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List (Ra’am), who asserted that Palestine already exists as a state recognised by most of the world.

“As long as I am prime minister, there will be no Palestinian state controlled by Iran—neither in Gaza nor in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu declared, after Abbas called on Israel and the United States to recognize Palestine.

Speaking at Ra’am’s general conference, Abbas said that Arab citizens of Israel could serve as “a bridge to peace.”

He added, “The State of Palestine exists and is recognised by most of the world, except for the United States and Israel. We want them to recognise it too, and we are working to achieve peace and reconciliation, an end to the occupation, and an end to the conflict.”

Yashar party leader Eisenkot also issued a categorical rejection: “There is no Palestinian state, and under a government we form, no Palestinian state will be established,” he wrote on X.

A former IDF chief of staff, Eisenkot has repeatedly distanced himself from any proposals for Palestinian statehood during the campaign.

Opinion polls indicate that Likud and its coalition partners are projected to fall short of the 61 seats needed to form a government after the October 27 election.

A Channel 13 poll published on August 19 gave Netanyahu’s Likud and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies a combined 51 seats—ten short of a parliamentary majority.

Eisenkot, a former member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, has emerged as the prime minister’s main challenger ahead of the election.
Israeli wounded in Jordan Valley terror attack
Following a joint pursuit by Israeli security forces, IDF soldiers seized the suspected terrorist who carried out a stabbing attack in the Al-Auja area north of Jericho in the Jordan Valley, on Sunday.

The successful capture was facilitated by IDF intelligence input and a joint pursuit by the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).

The terrorist had stabbed a 24-year-old Israeli man, according to the Israel Defense Forces and emergency responders.

Magen David Adom paramedics and IDF personnel treated the victim at the scene for a penetrating injury before evacuating him to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. The victim was described as moderately wounded.

A preliminary investigation found that the victim had stopped his vehicle on Route 90 near a shopping center and was standing outside when the terrorist attacked him from behind, stabbed him in the shoulder and fled, police said.

Israeli security personnel then launched a hunt for the terrorist, setting up road blocks and conducting searches across the surrounding area.

The military said it remained in close contact with local residents and security officials throughout the operation.


Jonathan Sacerdoti: Why Israel rejects Western guilt: Dan Scheuftan explains how survival and principle trump fashion
Israel and the Jewish people are facing a dramatic collapse in their standing across much of the world. Israel is increasingly portrayed not merely as a country whose policies should be criticised, but as the embodiment of absolute evil: accused of genocide, colonialism and apartheid, while the legitimacy of Jewish collective existence itself is challenged. Is this simply the latest eruption of an ancient antisemitism? Or has something deeper changed in Western society that has made hostility towards Israel increasingly respectable?

Dan Schueftan speaks to Jonathan Sacerdoti, arguing that the central conflict is between the worldview increasingly dominant in Western institutions and the reality in which Israel has to survive. While much of the West has grown suspicious of nationalism, military force and even the idea that nations must defend themselves, Israelis have drawn almost the opposite conclusions from Yom Kippur, the Second Intifada and October 7. Israel cannot afford, he argues, to adopt fashionable Western assumptions about war, national identity and security when its enemies still pose an existential threat. The result is a country increasingly at odds with the political and cultural zeitgeist of the societies whose approval it once sought.

Dan Shchueftan joins Jonathan Sacerdoti for a wide-ranging discussion about why Israel has become such a fixation of Western politics, whether Jewish life in Europe and America has a future, and why the moderate right may now offer Jews an alliance once associated with the liberal left.

💬 We Discuss:
🇮🇱 Why Israel has become increasingly isolated from the Western political and cultural mainstream
🌍 The clash between Israel's survival instincts and the modern Western zeitgeist
🕊️ Why Western attitudes towards war and military force changed so dramatically
⚔️ What October 7 taught Israelis about deterrence, prevention and the use of force
🎓 How progressivism transformed universities, human rights activism and attitudes towards Israel
🇵🇸 Why Israelis largely reject Western guilt over the Palestinians
✡️ Is today's explosion of anti-Israel sentiment fundamentally about antisemitism?
🩸 How the ancient blood libel has been repackaged for the modern age
📰 Why Schueftan believes Western media helps legitimise some of the oldest accusations against Jews
🔄 How antisemitism can simultaneously serve radically different political movements
🤝 Why parts of the Western left and the developing world have found common cause against Israel
🌐 What international institutions reveal about the changing global order
🇪🇺 Why Schueftan believes Jewish life in Europe faces a profound crisis
🇺🇸 Could American Jewish life be heading in the same direction?




Francesca Albanese Cries “Defamation,” Demands Elon Musk Censor Hillel Neuer For Calling Her “Hamas’s De Facto Spokesperson”
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese is claiming to be a victim of “outright defamation” and has called for Elon Musk to censor criticism of her acting as “Hamas’s de facto spokesperson.”

In a response on X to a featured post by UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, Albanese wrote: “Calling me Hamas Spokesperson is outright defamation, something one might expect from a decent platform that breaks its own rules, but perhaps not from Twitter’s current patron. Am I right, @Twitter?”

Rather than address the extensive public record of her statements and conduct, Albanese is effectively calling on Elon Musk, the owner of X, to censor criticism of her pro-Hamas actions and statements.

Neuer replied directly: “Please sue me, Ms. Albanese. As you are a non-lawyer, let me explain: Truth is an absolute defense. I repeat: You are Hamas’s de facto spokesperson at the UN. I would love to put your record before a court. Of course, to sue me, you’d have to admit you know exactly who I am.”

In anticipation of such a court case, Neuer posted a series of evidentiary “exhibits,” including:
- Albanese’s own statements minimizing and “putting in context” Hamas’s October 7 massacre while it was underway, blaming Israeli “aggression.”
- Her repeated justification and praise of Hamas as a political force that “built schools, public facilities, hospitals” and her claim that eliminating Hamas is part of a “genocidal logic.”
- Multiple instances of senior Hamas officials publicly praising and thanking Albanese for her UN reports and speeches, along with calls to boycott the “rogue Zionist entity.”

Neuer said:
“Francesca Albanese cannot refute the facts of her record, so she resorts to crying ‘outright defamation’ and trying to get X to censor the truth on her behalf. This is the classic tactic of those who abuse the language of human rights while whitewashing terrorists.”

“For years we have documented that Albanese functions as Hamas’s de facto spokesperson at the United Nations. She has repeatedly inverted the Holocaust, invoked classic antisemitic tropes about Jewish power and the ‘Jewish lobby,’ justified or “contextualized” the October 7 massacre, and received open praise from Hamas leaders. Multiple democratic governments—including the United States, France, Germany, and Canada—have condemned her for antisemitism and Holocaust inversion. She is the first UN expert in history to receive such rebukes from these countries.”

“Truth is an absolute defense. If Albanese believes she has been defamed, she should sue me. I invite her to put her full record before a court of law. Discovery would expose many of her private antisemitic emails and Whatsapp messages that are well known among UN insiders. Until then, her demand that Elon Musk, as the owner of the X platform, should silence accurate criticism only underscores how far she has fallen from any pretense of impartiality or integrity.”

UN Watch has long tracked Albanese’s pattern of conduct, including her appearances before audiences linked to Hamas, her refusal to condemn Palestinian terrorism while systematically demonizing Israel, and her violations of the UN Code of Conduct for Special Procedures Mandate Holders. The organization has repeatedly called for her removal and documented that her purported term renewal was carried out in violation of UN rules.


Mark Ruffalo embroiled in antisemitism row with Paramount over Israel
American actor and producer Mark Rufallo has become entangled in an escalating antisemitism row with Paramount Pictures, with support for Israel taking center stage.

The public feud began after the 58-year-old Oscar-nominated actor posted on Instagram Friday that Larry Ellison is using the American technology company Oracle, which he co-founded, to fund his son David Ellison’s acquisition of Warner Bros., linking Oracle’s military technology contracts with Israel.

Rufallo, who has been a strong opponent of Paramount’s pending takeover of Warner Bros., as well as of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza triggered by the massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, shared a years-old video clip of an Oracle executive discussing technology provided to the Israeli military.

“These ‘really profoundly scary technologies’ will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you,” the “Hulk” actor wrote. “Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”

Paramount blasted the actor’s usage of the words “genocide” and “apartheid” in connection with the business transaction as peddling in antisemitism, and said that it does not tolerate prejudice of any kind.

“We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” Paramount said in a statement. “Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong—they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe.”

An unapologetic Rufallo rejected the accusation of antisemitism as “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”

“Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing the Jewish people,” he tweeted on X. “This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel.”

As the fracas escalated, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center backed Paramount, commending it for “drawing a line” when legitimate debate gives way to antisemitism.

“At a time when antisemitism is too often minimized, rationalized or repackaged in more socially acceptable language, this kind of moral clarity matters,” Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, wrote on X. “Invoking Israel in an issue where it is completely irrelevant is a textbook case of obsession and demonization.”


Australian Jewish Association: Bob Carr slammed over AJA attack
Outsiders host Rowan Dean slammed Bob Carr over his ugly and defamatory attack on Australian Jewish organisations.

Carr is a former Labor Foreign Minister & NSW Premier.

Rowan suggested that Royal Commissioner Virginia Bell summon Bob Carr to appear before the Royal Commission into antisemitism.




Australian Muslim cleric sparks fury with shocking claims about Jews and Hitler
News24 host James Macpherson reacts to an Aussie preacher who claimed that Jews provoked Hitler into deporting them so they could create Israel.

“An Australian Muslim cleric now living and preaching in Iran has offered a rather novel interpretation of the Holocaust. According to Sayyid Abdullah Almusawi, we shouldn't blame Adolf Hitler for gassing the Jews. We should blame the Jews for Hitler gassing the Jews,” Mr Macpherson said.

“Because, according to Almusawi, the Jews deliberately provoked Hitler so they could be deported to the Middle East and establish their own state on Palestinian land.

“The cleric, who used to preach regularly at a Melbourne Mosque before moving to Iran, told those listening to his podcast that they shouldn't worry about the Jews. Because although the Jews were the most corrupt and vile people on earth, they would soon be destroyed, according to Islamic prophecy.”




Jewish groups urge Montreal City Council to jettison anti-Israel motion
Canada’s organized Jewish community is calling on the Montreal City Council to reject an “incendiary” anti-Israel motion set to be debated on Monday.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs accused Projet Montréal, the city’s official opposition party, of “importing a foreign conflict” to City Hall “while local emergencies pile up,” including homelessness, drugs and housing. CIJA said the motion does not refer to Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Introduced by Projet Montréal city councilors Nathalie Goulet, Ericka Alneus and Alex Norris, the proposal calls on Montreal to recognize and denounce what it describes as an “apartheid regime” and “genocide” in “Palestine.” It also calls on the city to suspend institutional ties with Israel’s current government, its institutions and municipalities until Israel “returns to internationally recognized borders” and ends what the motion describes as violations of Palestinian rights and international law.

The motion, action on which was postponed after being introduced in June, reaffirms opposition to antisemitism and Islamophobia. It also says Jewish residents and those of Israeli origin should not be held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government.

CIJA and Federation CJA, its Quebec partner, shared a video of Raquel Look, whose son Alexandre was killed in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack at the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. In the video, she urges city councilors to reject the motion.


Madman fired at Jewish summer camp basketball court, forced harrowing lockdown for kids: docs
A Maine madman who opened fire at a Jewish summer camp earlier this month appeared to fire toward the basketball courts — sending the kids into a terrifying lockdown, according to court documents.

Nathan Hewett, 36, had long been a problem at Camp Modin, in Belgrade, before he allegedly launched the drunken antisemitic attack on Aug. 7, according to camp owner Pascal Cohen.

Hewett, 36, allegedly fired several rounds from a rifle near camp grounds, triggering a lockdown with children as young as 7, Central Maine reported.

Security guards put on ballistic vests and armed themselves to protect the children.

While Hewett was arrested over the incident, he has since been released on bail, with the neighbor and his father now allegedly harassing employees at the camp.

“Especially when he is intoxicated,” security guard Timothy Black wrote in a letter to the Capital Judicial Center.

“He harasses us by coming to the property line and screaming at us.”

Joshua Ewing, another security guard at the camp and former law enforcement officer, said Hewett was “extremely enraged and irrational” when talking with the guards on the evening of the Aug. 7 incident.

Hewett claimed that his tractor lawn mower had been damaged after hitting something, with him and his father allegedly blaming the camp.

After the confrontation, the two guards heard the shots being fired from a high-powered rifle, according to the court documents.
Tense moment McDonald's worker chants 'Free Palestine' at drive-thru customers as they were complaining about their order
McDonald's has taken a young worker off its roster after she was filmed telling a pair of Jewish customers 'free Palestine'.

The customers, Asaf and Matan, filmed the interaction with the McDonald's worker at Cannon Hill, in Brisbane east, on Tuesday night after they claimed she turned verbally 'abusive'.

The situation unfolded when the pair were missing a Quarter Pounder burger from their order, so they pulled up to a drive-thru window to ask for it, with the worker then demanding to know where they were from.

Footage showed one of the men telling the worker they 'didn't get' the burger, and the staff member argued she had put in the bag.

After less than a minute, the worker cut off the customer and asked: 'Where are you from?'

'I live here in [the adjacent suburb of] Carina. My accent? I'm from Israel,' one of the men said.

The McDonald's employee then fired off: 'Free Palestine.'

'What do you mean?' the Jewish man asked, which prompted the worker to repeat again: 'Free, free Palestine.'

Asaf on Sunday told the Courier Mail he was left 'shaken' by the confrontation.

He further made unproven allegations the staff member had called he and Matan 'baby killers' and accused them of lying about the missing burger.

A McDonald's Australia spokesperson said the fast food giant was aware of the alleged incident.

She said the staff member had been suspended pending its own investigation into the incident.

'McDonald's sincerely apologises to the customers for their experience,' she said.

'As soon as we were made aware, we took immediate action and the employee has been stood down pending the outcome of our investigation.

'McDonald's has a zero-tolerance policy for acts of hate and antisemitism in our restaurants and communities.'

The spokeswoman added McDonald's is committed to making a 'safe, respectful and inclusive environments for our customers and crew'.


Israeli in Athens says he was expelled from social event after revealing his identity
Rafi Rom, an Israeli who has lived in Athens for 12 years, claims he was removed from a social event in the city on Saturday night after organizers learned that he was Israeli and Jewish.

According to Rom, security guards told him he had to leave because he allegedly posed a “security risk,” despite the fact that he had not done anything unusual and was not told what specifically constituted that risk.

The incident took place at an event hosted by Nomad Hub Greece, a community that organizes gatherings for digital nomads, remote workers, foreign residents, and travelers. Rom said he had attended events hosted by the community in the past.

The event was held at the 21 Grams rooftop bar in Avissinias Square in central Athens. It was advertised as an international social gathering open to the public, with free entry through advance registration, music, and views of the Acropolis. According to the event listing, 76 people had confirmed their attendance.

“When I arrived, there were already 50 or 60 people there,” Rom told Walla. “I entered, ordered a beer, and started talking with people. I introduced myself as Jewish and Israeli.”

Security guards removed Rom from the event, calling him a 'security risk.'
Rom said that among those at the event was someone he knew from previous gatherings, a Lebanese Christian man, who he believes was likely one of the hosts.

“I saw him talking with the security personnel,” he said.

Rom said that several minutes later, while he was standing alone and away from other attendees, security guards approached him.

“They told me that the event organizer wanted me to leave the place because I was a ‘security risk.’ I was shocked. I asked why and what exactly I had done, but they just repeated the claim that I posed some kind of threat,” he said.

Rom said that until that point, he had not confronted anyone, caused a disturbance, or been told that his behavior was inappropriate. He said the only thing that happened before he was removed was that he introduced himself to other attendees as Israeli and Jewish.

“It is clear to me that the only reason is my background. What security risk do I pose? It is important that people know this happened. This incident shook me,” he said.

Rom said he struggled to process the situation while it was happening.





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